This book of real-life stories is a palliative for the pain of everyday life. The basic premise is that intentional acts of kindness can have unintended and far reaching consequences that can affect individuals in extraordinary ways.

After former newspaper publisher Janis Heaphy Durham's husband, Max, died in 2004, Durham observed several odd occurrences, which she dismissed until a powdery handprint appeared on her bathroom mirror on the anniversary of Max's death. The anomalous events continued, even following her to a new home. Finally, she decided to investigate the possibilities of communication after death, and she reports her systematic inquiries in The Hand on the Mirror. Though this intriguing and poignant memoir doesn't answer all the questions it raises, it does offer moving reflections on how people deal with loss and grief. For another compelling account of after-death experiences, read Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven.

Providing children with positive spiritual experiences and education significantly improves their chances of avoiding risky behaviors, says psychologist Lisa Miller. In The Spiritual Child, she explores scientific research and offers anecdotes from case studies to demonstrate how important it is for children to grow up with spiritual guidance and grounding. Since she frames her discussion in terms of spiritual values that don't depend on specific religious content, Miller's accessible, well researched, and practical book "should prove useful for unaffiliated and observant parents alike" (Publishers Weekly).

Many people wonder what will happen after we die, and some turn to their religious traditions for teaching about the afterlife. In After This, author Claire Bidwell Smith, a hospice bereavement counselor, examines the relationship between grieving and how we understand the next step after death. Prompted by renewed awareness of her grief at her parents' deaths (as recounted in The Rules of Inheritance), Smith intensively investigated the possibilities of life after death and communication between the living and the dead. Whether you need solace after losing a loved one or are more generally interested in the mystery of death, you'll want to pick up this "thoughtful, compassionate" (Library Journal) memoir.

The Inklings were a group of Christian philosophers and writers who met regularly in Oxford between the 1930s and '50s to discuss religious beliefs, share their works in progress, and deepen their friendship. Four men formed the core of this group: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. In The Fellowship, authors Philip and Carol Zaleski present biographies of each member and of the whole group, celebrating their achievements, examining their lives, and tracing their influence on each other and the world at large. Both informative and inspiring, the book offers insight into their work and invites deeper reading. The Christian Science Monitor named this the Best Book of June 2015.

In 1939, an American Jesuit priest, John LaFarge, was working with Pope Pius XI on a Vatican policy regarding Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews. The Pope asked Fr. LaFarge to draft a statement that would condemn anti-Semitism in general and Nazi oppression in particular. Sadly, Pius XI died before this encyclical was issued, and his successor, Pius XII, followed a different course, which tended towards anti-Semitism and saw Communism as more dangerous than Nazism. The Pope's Last Crusade provides excerpts of LaFarge's draft encyclical and traces the influences that prevented its dissemination -- leaving the poignant question, might history have been different if the encyclical had been released?

We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe—a place it long perceived as primitive and disorganized—had somehow hijacked destiny.

In The Story of the Jews, acclaimed author and historian Simon Schama explores the Jewish sense of identity in art and religious teachings from 1000 B.C. to 1492 A.D., when Portugal expelled Jewish residents. Focusing on a specific object at the beginning of each chapter, Schama explores the item's context and its significance to the people associated with it, broadening his discussion to examine the Jewish community at each artifact's location and historical period. Schama's engaging approach draws readers into the settings and provides insight into the history of Jews and Judaism through the millennia. This is the 1st of two planned volumes; the 2nd will appear this November.

On July 24, 1847, a band of Mormon pioneers descended into the Salt Lake Valley. Having crossed the Great Plains and hauled their wagons over the Rocky Mountains, they believed that their long search for a permanent home had finally come to an end. Within ten years of their arrival, the Mormons had established nineteen communities, extending all the way to San Diego, California. Durham delineates the region as a crucible for a complex and exciting narrative history. Moreover, Durham depicts the Mormon way of life under a constant strain from its interaction with miners, soldiers, mountain men, the Pony Express, railroad builders, federal officials, and an assortment of other so-called Gentiles.

Traces a grassroots movement through which Christians throughout the past two millennia have worked to preserve Jesus's message of social justice; in an account that discusses such topics as care for the environment, pacifism as a response to war, and the celebration of human sexuality.